Stephen Fry’s BBC mini-series “Fry’s Planet Word” discusses The Odyssey:
“Homer’s genius was to create vivid, archetypal scenes that transcended time and place. The Sirens episode is only a few paragraphs long, yet has become embedded in our collective memory.”
Check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W4i6sWCbk0&t=8m22s